The present invention relates to golf clubs, and especially to a golf club head of a predetermind shape having turning air vanes mounted thereon in a predetermined manner to reduce air drag on the club.
In the past, attempts have been made to reduce air drag on golf clubs by using traditional techniques used in the design of air foils to streamline the bodies of the golf club and by the utilization of spoilers or boundary layer strips, or the like, mounted on the rear of the golf club in accordance with classical aerodynamic theory. This has not generally proven successful in creating any significant reductions in the air drag of the golf club head. These prior art approaches assume a flow across the top and bottom of the club head with a breakaway of the flow accruing at the back edges of the club, so that vortex generators or boundary layer strips have been used to upset the breakaway of the air flow by creating controlled turbulence to fill the void behind the club and thus decrease the drag of the major body by more than the turbulence creating device increases the drag. In the case of a golf club, these prior art teachings have not proven significant in that the golf club head is a blunt object moving through air rather than a streamlined air foil.
Golf club heads having grooves or ribs found thereon can be seen in the Goldberg U.S. Pat. No. 3,997,170; in the Gordos U.S. Pat. No. 4,065,133; and in U.S. Pat. Des. No. 192,515. One prior U.S. Pat. No. 1,089,881, to Taylor, has grooves or ribs formed as feet for the golf club; while U.S. Pat. No. 2,083,189 to Crooker, has a golf club having an aerodynamic shape. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,468,544 to Antonious, a golf club wood has improved aerodynamic characteristics provided by one or more passageways or holes extending through the wood under the top surface of the club head and having outlets to the holes in the back of the club to produce a ram air exhaust through the club head into the wake region of the rear of the club head to raise the base pressure and decrease the base drag. The Antonious patent provides, as does the present invention, means for producing a ram air exhaust for decreasing drag, but Antonious does not have turning vanes mounted in a predetermined fashion nor spacing for the turning vanes forming air foils to produce a combined effect for reducing drag.
To solve the problem of drag in a golf club driver, my invention uses turning vanes added to the top, or to the top and bottom, to redirect the air flow and follow the shape of the club head. The air foils or vanes also act to produce a ram air exhaust effect and further reduction is accomplished by adding traditional drag reduction techniques to the shape of the club head.
The combination of the present invention utilizes turning vanes with a club head shaped to form an air foil cross-sectional dimension ratio of 3:1 front of air foil to back of club head to greatest height of club head and uses spacing posts to space the turning vanes found in an air foil shape which acts as vortex generators along with turning vanes to provide for a reduction of drag over conventional golf clubs. Drag has been reduced up to 41.3% at a wind speed of 200 feet per second in wind tunnel tests of the golf club head. The entire club, of course, would have a smaller percentage of drag reduction. In actual tests with a mechanical golfer, a conventional golf club was able to drive a ball from 240 to 257 yards with a mean of 249.36 yards with a standard deviation of 4.072 yards; while one embodiment of the present golf club drove balls from 260 yards to 275 yards with a means of 268.70 yards with a standard deviation of 4.358.